


The Secret Ingredient

by All-We-Must-Be (detectivecaz)



Series: Worst Witch 2018 Winter Fluff Event Ficlet Collection [5]
Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Baking, Day 5, F/F, Fluff, Romance, winter fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-07 16:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16857427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detectivecaz/pseuds/All-We-Must-Be
Summary: When a various assortment of cakes start to appear in the staff room each morning, Ada goes to the kitchen’s to thank Mrs Tapioca only to be met with an unexpected surprise.





	The Secret Ingredient

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5 of the Worst Witch 2018 Winter Fluff event.
> 
> Prompt: Baking.

* * *

Ada walked towards the kitchen to thank Mrs. Tapioca for the various assortment of cakes that she had so kindly baked for the staff and students over the past few days. From white chocolate, orange and cranberry sponge topped with meringue kisses, to salted caramel yule log, and not forgetting today’s treat; festive brownies with crunchy amaretti biscuits and rich chocolate truffles spritzed with edible gold spray. She had never tasted anything quite so delicious. Mrs. Tapioca had outshone herself this time.

As she walked down the corridor towards the kitchen’s she pushed open the door only to stop in shock at disbelief at seeing not Mrs. Tapioca bur rather Hecate wearing a white apron, with specks of flour covering her face as she added various ingredients to the bowl on the table.

“Hecate?”

The potion’s mistress jumped and looked over at Ada in panic. “It’s not what it looks like, Ada.”

Ada walked over to Hecate and looked down at the table to see a bakery book opened to the page showing the ingredients for a lemon meringue cheesecake. To Ada, the recipe looked complicated and challenging, but from the various ingredients laid out across the table, it seemed Hecate knew what she was doing.

“I didn’t know you baked, Hecate.” Ada looked up at her deputy in wonder wondering what other talents the potion’s mistress was hiding.

Hecate bowed her head and continued to add the various other ingredients to the mixture. “I used to do it with my mother when I was a child. I found it relaxing, I still do. After she passed, I stopped baking altogether, it brought back too many memories.”

“Yet, here you are,” Ada said almost transfixed as she watched Hecate start to blend all the ingredients in the bowl together. “What made you restart?”

“Pippa. She asked me to bake a cake for her birthday last month. I declined of course, but Pippa can be persistent when she needs to be.” Hecate muttered as she poured the blended mixture into the metal tin. “I finally relented of course, but a part of me was nervous that I would have forgotten everything my mother taught me. So, it was quite a shock when everything seemed to come flooding back and it made me realise how much I missed it.”

Ada watched confused as Hecate tapped the tin few times sharply on the counter.

“It’s to get rid of any bubbles,” Hecate told her with a smile, placing the tin back in the oven.

“Of course it is.” Ada whispered, “how long does it take to bake?”

“Forty minutes, but I still need to make the lemon layer. You’re more than welcome to help me, Ada.”

Ada’s eyes widened, “That’s quite alright, Hecate. Baking was never one of my strongest talents.”

“I can teach you. All you need is to do is follow the instructions and have patience. Think of it as if you were making a potion.”

Ada suddenly felt nervous as she looked at the remaining ingredients with trepidation, though the thought of baking with Hecate sounded like a lovely idea.

“If you’re sure, Hecate, then I would be honoured.”

“Okay, so to start we need to add the lemon curd,” Hecate said waiting for Ada to hand her the ingredient.

“Lemon curd, lemon curd, ah here we go.” Ada picked up the ingredient and spooned it into a new clean glass bowl. “What do we need next?”

“One large egg, plus three large yolks, saving the whites.”

Ada at her in confusion not understanding a word of what Hecate had just told her.

Hecate shook her head fondly, and picked up the large egg and handed it to Ada who was ready to place it in the mixture.

“Ada, you need to crack it first.”

“Of course, I knew that,” Ada muttered trying to her embarrassment.

“Let me show you.”

Ada saw Hecate move to stand behind her, feeling the other woman pressed against her back, as she reached around and placed her hands over Ada’s. “Rather than cracking it against the bowl, it’s better to use a flat surface,” Hecate whispered in Ada’s ear, helping her crack the egg.

“Now what?”

“We need to save the whites, but ensure we get three yolks. So, in order to do that, you need to gently pull the two halves apart.”

Ada nodded trying hard to concentrate on following Hecate’s instructions which were proving difficult thanks to their close proximity. Holding her breath, she let Hecate guide her movements, watching as the white of the egg drained into one of the smaller bowls, leaving the yolk remaining.

“Now we have separated the yolk we can add it to the mixture,” Hecate said guiding Ada’s hands over to the larger bowl and dropping the yolk inside.

“See, there’s nothing to it. We just need to repeat the steps two more times.”

“But it says one large egg.” Ada turned around to look up at Hecate seeing her eyes soften.

“Yes, but the egg only has one yolk we need an additional two eggs to get the mixture correct.”

“I see.”

“Would you like to try with the other two eggs on your own?”

Ada shook her head, “I would rather we didn’t tempt fate, Hecate.”

“Alright.” Hecate smiled as they repeated the same process of separating the yolks from the other two eggs.  

Once the step was complete, Ada tried to hide her disappointment when she felt Hecate’s hands leave her own as she moved back to her original position beside her.

“Next, we need to juice the lemon.”

Ada picked up the yellow fruit thankful that she at least knew how to do that simple step, but she wouldn’t have minded if Hecate decided to show her. When she was sure they managed to get all the juice from the lemon, Ada added it to the mixture while Hecate added three tablespoons of flour just as the kitchen was filled with a loud ringing from the egg timer.

“It seems the filling has cooked, do you mind gently whisking this, while I get the tin from the oven?”

“Of course, Hecate,” Ada said with a smile, picking up the whisk and started to mix the ingredients together. The strong smell of lemons overtook her senses causing her mouth to water.

While Ada was mixing the lemon layer, Hecate carefully brought over the tin containing the base and filling and placed it on the table next to Ada.

“Does this look okay?” Ada asked showing her the deep yellowish brown contents of the mixed ingredients.

“It looks perfect, Ada. We just need to spoon it over the cheesecake base, then pop it in the oven for another forty minutes. Then it needs to chill overnight.”

Ada tried to hide her disappointment as she evenly spread the lemon layer over the base.  “Could we not use a spell to hurry the process along?”

Hecate raised an eyebrow in amusement, “I suppose we could try and see what happens.”

Standing in front of the half cooked cheesecake, Ada waited with bated breath hoping that her idea and Hecate’s spell would work. When the spell was complete, Hecate inspected the cake, satisfied that her spell seemed to have worked.  

“Well, did it work Hecate?”

“It would appear that it has, Ada.”

“How wonderful, now we can add the finishing touches, which is the meringues,” Ada said with excitement. “I’ll leave those to your expertise, Hecate.”

Hecate smirked as she got to work on the meringues trying not to get distracted at feeling Ada’s eyes watching her every movement. The meringues always left her feeling nervous and worried that they wouldn’t turn out the way they were supposed to.

As she got to the final stage of pouring the syrup in a slow steady stream, she held her breath hoping that she didn’t make a mistake. It was only when the meringue stiffened, that she inwardly sighed with relief.

Ada watched in awe as Hecate repeated the step six more times with ease. There was no denying her deputy was a natural at baking. She could already picture the look of shock and disbelief on her colleagues and the girl’s faces at seeing their normally strict potion’s mistress covered in flour while baking what Ada was sure would be a delicious cake.

When the final meringue was made, Hecate started to pile them on top of the cheesecake, then used the same spell she had used earlier to gently caramelise the top of the meringues.

“Voila, one Lemon Meringue Cheesecake,” Hecate said with pride as she admired her work.

“It looks wonderful, Hecate. May I?” Ada asked eager to have a taste.

“You never have to ask, Ada,” Hecate replied softly cutting a piece of the cheesecake with the fork and held it in front of Ada’s lips for her to taste.

 A soft moan escaped Ada causing Hecate to blush, “I take it you approve?”

“Most definitely. You’ve surpassed yourself again, Hecate.” Ada said softly, reaching up to gently wipe the flour from Hecate’s cheek. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“I add my own special secret ingredient.”

“Which is?” Ada asked feeling her heartbeat quicken as Hecate leaned down and whispered a single word into her ear.

“Love.”

 


End file.
